Broward podiatrist and sneaker designer Gregoire Garcon was in a little trouble with the feds but he made things a lot worse for himself by hotfooting it out of the U.S. five months ago while he was negotiating a plea agreement, a prosecutor said.

Garcon found out in August he was under investigation on allegations of theft of government money. Federal prosecutors say he gave 17 stolen U.S. Treasury tax refund checks, with a face value of more than $110,000, to an associate he thought could get them cashed in 2013.

If Garcon, 56, of Sunny Isles Beach, was found guilty of all four charges, he was facing somewhere between 15 months and 21 months in federal prison. But while his lawyer at the time was trying to negotiate a deal, Garcon "continued to stall" and flew from South Florida to Brazil in late November, prosecutor Alicia Shick told a judge Monday.

Garcon's family was so concerned about his whereabouts that his niece even filed a missing person report, Shick said: "He didn't even tell his family he was leaving."

Shick took the case to a federal grand jury, which indicted Garcon in his absence in mid-December.

Garcon is accused of trying to get the stolen checks cashed between March and June, 2013. Investigators said an associate of Garcon's offered to get them cashed via a contact in Tampa that would leave Garcon with just 55 percent of the face value of the checks. The contact in Tampa was an undercover IRS agent, authorities said.

Sun Sentinel / Broward Sheriff's Office Handout

Gregoire Garcon, 57, a Margate podiatrist and sneaker designer from Sunny Isles Beach, was sentenced to seven months in federal prison after admitting he tried to get stolen tax refund checks cashed. He paid more than $29,000 in restitution.

Gregoire Garcon, 57, a Margate podiatrist and sneaker designer from Sunny Isles Beach, was sentenced to seven months in federal prison after admitting he tried to get stolen tax refund checks cashed. He paid more than $29,000 in restitution.

(Sun Sentinel / Broward Sheriff's Office Handout)

When agents from IRS Criminal Investigations interviewed Garcon at his home on Aug. 11 last year, they said he confessed to receiving the checks and told them "his divorce had wiped him out financially, and he needed the money," according to court records.

The doctor was "in the wind" for five months, apparently traveling in South America, until he eventually contacted his new lawyer Michael D. Weinstein earlier this month and said he'd had enough and was coming home to face the federal charges, Shick said.

After a few missed flights, Garcon eventually flew from Bogota, Colombia, to Fort Lauderdale, on April 19. His lawyer said he planned to surrender but federal agents arrested him when he arrived.

Shick said that, even though Garcon had not yet been charged when he left the country, it had been made clear to him that he should not disappear while negotiations were underway.

But Weinstein, who inherited the case from the other lawyer, told the judge Garcon had a "completely different take" on his motives for leaving and that he simply got "scared."

"It was not that he was straight-up fleeing," Weinstein told the judge.

Garcon had not yet been formally charged, was marketing his line of sneakers, and emailed the government, via Weinstein, when he decided to return, the lawyer said. Weinstein said his client told him he missed his children, ages 14, 15 and 19.

If Garcon had not fled, Schick told the judge she would never have asked for him to be locked up pending trial. Shick said she was also concerned he was concealing money from his sneaker business and he apparently turned over control of or sold his condo in the La Perla building on Collins Avenue in Sunny Isles Beach that he bought for $700,000 last year.

Garcon, who was born in Haiti, is a naturalized U.S. citizen who attended medical school in the U.S. and has been practicing as a podiatrist in South Florida for more than 20 years. Most recently, he had a medical office on the 600 block of State Road 7 in Margate.

U.S. Magistrate Barry Seltzer agreed with prosecutors and ordered Garcon should remain locked up while the case is pending.

"I give Mr. Garcon credit for returning to face this … but in light of his flight, I just can't go ahead and take a chance [on releasing him]," the judge said. Garcon is due back in court next month to indicate if he will fight the charges.

State records show Garcon's medical license was placed in "delinquent" status while he was gone because it expired March 31. Weinstein said there should be no difficulty getting his license reinstated.